“Get Excited?” Hold Up …

South Carolina won’t be celebrating a decline in its unemployment rate in February, although pom-pom wielding S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley will have two chances to “get excited” during the month of March.

How come?

Because Jobless data for January – which is typically released at the end of February (i.e. right now) – won’t be published until mid-March due to annual unemployment “re-estimations” being made in Washington, D.C.

“Annually, labor force estimates are revised as part of a benchmarking process, a nationwide re-estimating procedure mandated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) using up-to-date data from employer payroll records,” the department says.

Last year, this recalibration resulted in a modest decline in the state’s unemployment rate – which stood at 9.5 percent in December, the latest month for which information is available. South Carolina’s unemployment rate – a broader, more accurate measure of joblessness – is 18.4 percent.

The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW) will release January’s employment data on March 13. Data for February will be released on March 30.

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